Extinct hominin from the Early Pleistocene of East Africa
Homo rudolfensis
Temporal range: Pleistocene, 2.5/1.9–1.85/1.55 Ma
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Reconstruction of the KNM-ER 1470 skull
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Primates
Suborder:
Haplorhini
Infraorder:
Simiiformes
Family:
Hominidae
Subfamily:
Homininae
Tribe:
Hominini
Genus:
Homo (?)
Species:
†H. rudolfensis
Binomial name
†Homo rudolfensis
(Alekseyev, 1986)
Synonyms
Pithecanthropus rudolfensis Alekseyev, 1986
Australopithecus rudolfensis (Alekseyev, 1986)
Kenyanthropus rudolfensis (Cameron, 2003)
Homo rudolfensis is an extinct species of archaic human from the Early Pleistocene of East Africa about 2 million years ago (mya). Because H. rudolfensis coexisted with several other hominins, it is debated what specimens can be confidently assigned to this species beyond the lectotype skull KNM-ER 1470 and other partial skull aspects. No bodily remains are definitively assigned to H. rudolfensis. Consequently, both its generic classification and validity are debated without any wide consensus, with some recommending the species to actually belong to the genus Australopithecus as A. rudolfensis or Kenyanthropus as K. rudolfensis, or that it is synonymous with the contemporaneous and anatomically similar H. habilis.
H. rudolfensis is distinguished from H. habilis by larger size, but it is also argued that this species actually consists of male H. habilis specimens, assuming that H. habilis was sexually dimorphic and males were much larger than females. Because no bodily remains are definitely identified, body size estimates are largely based on the stature of H. habilis. Using this, male H. rudolfensis may have averaged about 160 cm (5 ft 3 in) in height and 60 kg (130 lb) in weight, and females 150 cm (4 ft 11 in) and 51 kg (112 lb). KNM-ER 1470 had a brain volume of about 750 cc (46 cu in). Like other early Homo, H. rudolfensis had large cheek teeth and thick enamel.
Early Homo species exhibit marked brain growth compared to Australopithecus predecessors, which is typically explained as a change in diet with a calorie-rich food source, namely meat. Though not associated with tools, dental anatomy suggests some processing of plant or meat fiber before consumption, though the mouth could still effectively chew through mechanically challenging food, indicating tool use did not greatly affect diet.
Homorudolfensis is an extinct species of archaic human from the Early Pleistocene of East Africa about 2 million years ago (mya). Because H. rudolfensis...
not yet clear. Homorudolfensis refers to a single, incomplete skull from Kenya. Scientists have suggested that this was a specimen of Homo habilis, but...
splitting, namely into "H. rudolfensis" and "H. gautengensis" of which only the former has received wide support. Like contemporary Homo, H. habilis brain size...
1972, designated Pithecanthropus rudolfensis by Alekseyev 1978) is now seen as either a third early species of Homo (alongside H. habilis and H. erectus)...
Homo (from Latin homō 'human') is a genus of great ape that emerged from the genus Australopithecus and encompasses the extant species Homo sapiens (modern...
LD 350-1 from Ethiopia, and the earliest named species are Homo habilis and Homorudolfensis which evolved by 2.3 million years ago. H. erectus (the African...
paniscus Homo habilis HomorudolfensisHomo ergaster Homo erectus Homo antecessor Homo heidelbergensis Homo naledi Homo neanderthalensis Homo denisova Homo sapiens...
early from contemporaneous Homo. It is unclear whether they branched off at around the time of H. habilis, H. rudolfensis, and A. sediba, are a sister...
K. platyops, but may also include the 2 million year old Homorudolfensis, or K. rudolfensis. Before its naming in 2001, Australopithecus afarensis was...
Homo floresiensis ( /flɔːrˈɛziːˌɛn.sɪs/ also known as "Flores Man") is an extinct species of small archaic human that inhabited the island of Flores, Indonesia...
Humankind Homo ergaster – Extinct species or subspecies of archaic human Homorudolfensis – Extinct hominin from the Early Pleistocene of East Africa Homo habilis –...
Neanderthals (/niˈændərˌtɑːl, neɪ-, -ˌθɑːl/ nee-AN-də(r)-TAHL, nay-, -THAHL; Homo neanderthalensis or H. sapiens neanderthalensis) are an extinct group of...
floresiensis, Homo naledi, Homo luzonensis, Homorudolfensis, Australopithecus sediba, Australopithecus africanus, and Paranthropus. Homo erectus tautavelensis...
interpreted as either a distinct species, Homorudolfensis, or alternatively as evidence of sexual dimorphism in Homo habilis. In 1967, Richard Leakey reported...
Homo heidelbergensis (also H. erectus heidelbergensis, H. sapiens heidelbergensis) is an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human which existed during...
was originally thought to be Homo habilis, but some anthropologists have assigned it to a new species, Homorudolfensis, named after the lake (previously...
Homo longi is an extinct species of archaic human identified from a nearly complete skull, nicknamed 'Dragon Man', from Harbin on the Northeast China Plain...
Homo luzonensis, also locally called "Ubag" after a mythical caveman, is an extinct, possibly pygmy, species of archaic human from the Late Pleistocene...
distinguished from earlier and more basal species of Homo, notably H. habilis and H. rudolfensis, by a number of features that align them, and their inferred...
the early Homo fossils that have been found into Homorudolfensis and Homo habilis, or lumping them together into one single species, Homo habilis. Some...
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many hominin fossils thought to be from different species such as Homorudolfensis or Homo habilis may not have been separate species at all. Rather, they...
Several expansions of populations of archaic humans (genus Homo) out of Africa and throughout Eurasia took place in the course of the Lower Paleolithic...
of Paranthropus boisei caused great excitement. A Homorudolfensis skull (KNM ER 1470) and a Homo erectus skull (KNM ER 3733), discovered in 1972 and...
Paranthropus boisei Homo – immediate ancestors of modern humans Homo gautengensis† (probable H. habilis specimens) Homorudolfensis† Homo habilis† Homo floresiensis†...
1470, an incomplete skull of an archaic human of the extinct species Homorudolfensis that was discovered in 1972 in Kenya. South of Heaven was released...
Humankind Homo ergaster – Extinct species or subspecies of archaic human Homo habilis – Archaic human species from 2.8 to 1.65 mya Homorudolfensis – Extinct...
boisei Homo – close relatives of modern humans Homo gautengensis† (probable H. habilis specimens) Homorudolfensis† (membership in Homo uncertain) Homo habilis†...
(EMH), or anatomically modern human (AMH), are terms used to distinguish Homo sapiens (the only extant Hominina species) that are anatomically consistent...
humans. The third molar is outside the range of any Homo species except H. habilis and H. rudolfensis, and is more like those of australopithecines. The...
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